Wooden Street Bags INR 354 Cr Funding To Fortify Its Offline Play

SUMMARY

The D2C furniture startup’s funding round was led by Premji Invest

The Jaipur-based startup will look to fuel its offline expansion by opening new stores in metro and non-metro cities and strengthen its manufacturing capability

Founded in 2015, Wooden Street operates 102 experience stores, 20+ warehouses, and a 15 lakh sq ft manufacturing facility spread across India

Jaipur-based D2C furniture startup Wooden Street has raised INR 354 Cr (about $43 Mn) in its Series C funding round led by Premji Invest.

The startup plans to utilise the fresh capital to fuel its offline expansion by opening new stores in metro and non-metro cities and strengthening its manufacturing capability.

Founded in 2015 by Lokendra Ranawat, Virendra Ranawat, Dinesh Pratap Singh and Vikas Baheti, Wooden Street sells furniture and home decor products, including solid wood and modular furniture, kitchen and wardrobe, home décor, lighting, furnishings and office furniture through its website, Amazon and its stores.

The startup, which last raised $30 Mn in its Series B round in April 2022, operates 102 experience stores, 20+ warehouses, and a 15 lakh sq ft manufacturing facility spread across India.

“We plan to utilise the fresh funds to fuel aggressive business expansion. The company will scale its retail footprint by opening new stores in tier-1 and tier-2 cities, in the coming years, enhancing our omni-channel presence,” cofounder Singh said.

Prior to this funding round, Wooden Street had raised $35 Mn. Premji Invest will join other investors like WestBridge Capital, Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund and Indian Angel Network Fund on Wooden Street’s cap table.

In its last disclosed financial report for the fiscal year 2022-23 (FY23), the startup reported a net profit after tax (PAT) of INR 99.17 Lakh, down about 20% from INR 1.23 Cr in FY22. However, revenue from operations jumped 48% to INR 194.22 Cr from INR 131.66 Cr in FY22.

Wooden Street competes with the likes of Pepperfry, Urban Ladder and StitchWood, among others.

The fundraise comes at a time when the funding winter seems to be waning and investor interest in the Indian startup ecosystem is on the rise.

New-age tech companies raised $8.7 Bn in the first nine months of the year, up over 20% from $7.2 Bn raised in the first three quarters of 2023. The funding trends have been on the up in the final quarter of 2024 as well.

For instance, Indian startups raised $1.3 Bn via 80 deals in November 2024.In the first week of December, the Indian startup ecosystem cumulatively raised $249.6 Mn across 18 deals.